Look After You: Threshold WhatIf
by starrylaa
Summary: A what-if of Look After You. Tom turned into a lizard and kidnapped B'Elanna instead of Kathryn, and together in Sickbay they deal with the aftermath.


**Look After You- Threshold- **_**What if? **_

A/N: This idea came about because KUgirl had rather hoped that Tom would have taken B'Elanna instead of the Captain in Look After You. So instead, I wrote a 'What-If' he had taken her, and this one-shot looks at the three days they spend in Sickbay together. It's mostly a dialogue fic, and I tried to make it humorous instead of going for the serious side, and hope they're not too out of character and that it's at least vaguely funny. I hope you enjoy and thanks to KUgirl for the idea!

***

After performing a check-up, the Doctor finally left B'Elanna and Tom alone together in Sickbay, where they sat on opposite biobeds.

The two of them didn't say anything for a while; instead, awkward glances and nervous looks were exchanged.

Finally, Tom cleared his throat. "So... I'm sorry for escaping from confinement and kidnapping you."

B'Elanna puckered her lips. "That's okay. At least I got to get out of Engineering for a few hours."

Tom gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure that's a great consolation."

B'Elanna gave a nervous laugh back, and they immediately fell into silence again.

_A few minutes later..._

"I guess we can cross out having kids on the 'Things we will never do, _ever_' list," B'Elanna mused. "I just never thought that I would give birth to those lizard things. And especially not with you. Although, come to think of it, how do I know I was the one to give birth? For all I know, it was you. The males of tomorrow might have ovaries..."

Tom emitted another nervous laugh that was on the wrong side of delirium.

They lapsed into silence once more.

_An hour later..._

"I'm feeling a bit sick," Tom admitted.

"I would too if I had just died, come back to life, turned into a reptile thing, kidnapped a friend and then spawned weird creatures with them. As it is, I'm just freaked out." B'Elanna was fully aware that she was babbling, but couldn't seem to stop herself.

"And I think I'm going to throw up," Tom said, rushing off.

_A few minutes later..._

"Tom? Are you okay?"

Tom sat back down on the biobed. "I think I just threw up something that might have once been a bug."

"..."

"..."

"_Oh_."

_An hour later..._

"So do you remember being a...you know."

"No," B'Elanna answered a little bit too quickly.

"Good. Me neither."

There was a pause.

"So you don't remember us- you know...mating?" Tom asked.

B'Elanna squirmed. "Not really."

"You mean, the best few minutes of your reptile life and you don't remember it?" Tom scoffed.

B'Elanna snorted. "More like seconds, Tom. And don't count yourself so lucky."

_Another hour later..._

"Do you think we should have just left them there?"

"Left who there?"

B'Elanna gave Tom a look, but didn't answer.

_A few minutes later..._

"Do you think they'll survive on that planet?" B'Elanna asked.

Tom shrugged.

"I feel a bit bad, like maybe we should go back and get them," B'Elanna carried on. The babbling was back. "Do you think if we got them, they'd turn into humans? What would they look like? Would we have to bring them up? Do you think we'd get new quarters because mine isn't even that big..." B'Elanna was starting to become hysterical.

Tom just looked at her with wide eyes.

_A few more minutes later..._

"B'Elanna?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's not talk about the baby thing again, okay?"

"Okay."

_Fifteen minutes later..._

"Harry!" They both chorused.

"Wow, that's the most enthusiastic greeting I've ever received," Harry mused as he walked over to them. "Thought I'd pop over and see how you guys were doing. So...lizards hey?"

"I think it was more like a reptile," Tom supplied.

"A lizard is a reptile," B'Elanna informed him.

"But not the kind of reptile I want to be."

"Oh, but you were."

"Yeah, well so were you."

"..."

"So...I take it you guys had fun. What exactly happened to you anyway?"

B'Elanna and Tom exchanged glances.

"Tom kidnapped me and took me to a planet and we mated and had wonderful lizard babies."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"B'Elanna! We weren't going to talk about this again, remember?"

"It's Harry, Tom. He deserves to know."

"What, that we had babies and left them on a planet?"

"You guys...you guys..." Harry began, trying to find his voice.

"..."

"Well done, B'Elanna. You made him faint."

_An hour later..._

"Are you okay, Harry?" Tom asked, calling over to the other biobed across the room.

"I'm fine," he replied weakly. "I'm just kind of shocked, you know?"

"Tell me about it," B'Elanna drawled.

"Does that constitute as cheating on Sue?" Harry wondered.

B'Elanna cast Tom an awkward glance.

Tom shrugged.

"I think after all this Tom, you at least owe B'Elanna breakfast."

"..."

"..."

"It wasn't like that, Harry," Tom finally said.

Harry laughed.

_The next day..._

"Morning, B'Elanna."

B'Elanna avoided Tom's gaze, having watched him sleep the last hour since she'd been awake. It felt strange to know that just over twenty-four hours earlier she had been grieving over him, whilst realising a lot of things she couldn't hide anymore. While she had possibly envisioned a romance of some sort with Tom, turning into a lizard and doing weird lizard things wasn't what she had in mind.

"Morning, Tom."

Silence.

"So...another day stuck in here together, hey?"

"Yeah..."

"..."

"..."

"I had a dream where I thought of the idea of trying to reach Warp 10, and then decided it would be a great idea not to do it."

"That must have been nice."

"Yeah..."

_A few minutes later..._

"Are you glad that you managed to reach Warp 10?"

"Other than the dying bit and mutating thing, yeah, I guess."

"Good."

Silence again.

_A few minutes later..._

"Tom?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you came back to life, even if you did look really weird and lost your tongue."

"Me too. About the being alive thing, I mean. Not to the looking weird part."

_An hour later..._

"Tom?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you kidnapped me?"

"Because I was overcome by strong reptilian mating urges and you were the nearest female in my vicinity."

"Oh."

"That was just a joke, B'Elanna. At least, I think it is..."

They both laughed nervously together.

_Another hour later..._

Tom returned from an interesting talk about nothing in particular with the Doctor.

"Kes just told me that you said some pretty interesting things when you were whacked out."

"Oh she did, did she?" Tom threw a glare in the direction of Kes.

"I hear that seventeen was a good age for you."

Tom blanched.

"Is that all she told you?" Tom asked after a while.

"Other than your immense craving for pepperoni pizza, yeah..."

"She didn't mention me talking about anyone else?"

"No." B'Elanna looked at him. "Why, did you say something about someone?"

Tom gave another nervous laugh. "No..."

"If you say so."

_Another hour later..._

"I think I have scales on my elbow," B'Elanna announced.

"..."

_A few minutes later..._

"I think I have scales on my toes," Tom announced.

B'Elanna leaned over to have a look. "Urgh. You do."

"That's a bit weird," he mused.

"Yeah..."

_An hour later..._

"I wonder why you mutated into a reptile. I would have placed my rations on a mutant pig."

"You would be so lucky, B'Elanna."

"I know. Maybe next time."

"..."

"That was a joke, Tom."

"Good. Because if I did mutate and turn into a pig, I'd take you with me."

"..."

"That was a joke, B'Elanna."

"Oh. I knew that."

_Another hour later..._

"I'm getting a bit bored being in here," B'Elanna announced.

"Me too."

"Do you think Harry is going to come and see us today?"

"I hope so."

"Yeah."

_One more hour later..._

"I'm really hungry," Tom announced.

"What, are you having some 'immense craving' for pepperoni pizza?"

"Yes, actually."

"Well, the Doctor says we have to live off that disgusting shake thing for now."

"That's not food!"

"You're telling me."

_A few minutes later..._

"I never got why you always replicate pizzas in a box. You can get them without the box, you know."

"They taste better if they're in the box."

"I'll take your word for it."

_An hour later..._

"I really should be in Engineering right now," B'Elanna mused.

"I did tell you I was sorry."

"Yeah? Well you should be. I'm going crazy in here."

_Another hour later..._

"Tom?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm actually kind of glad you chose me to – you know... It was nice to be thought of."

"Yeah. I can only assume that you were really good company. And hey, at least I didn't choose the Captain!"

"..."

"..."

"That would have been weird," B'Elanna said.

"Tell me about it."

_Another hour later..._

"B'Elanna?"

"..."

"B'Elanna?"

"..."

"Oh, you're sleeping. And it's only the afternoon. Great."

_The next day..._

"Well, the Doc says we can go in a couple of hours," Tom announced.

"Thank God!"

"I know. I never want to spend another day in here again."

B'Elanna snorted. "I'll bet my month's rations that you'll be here again within a week."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You're on."

_Half an hour later..._

"Tom?"

"Yeah?"

"It was nice working with you on this project. I've missed spending time with you."

Tom looked at B'Elanna intently. "I've missed spending time with you, too."

They exchanged smiles.

_Half an hour later..._

"B'Elanna?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you were the one I spent the last three days with."

B'Elanna cast him an appreciative glance. "Me too, Tom."

_An hour later..._

"So... we're free to go," Tom said.

"Yeah."

"What's your first plan in honour of your freedom?"

"I guess I'll go to work."

"_Work?_"

"Well, yeah..."

"..."

"What do you propose I do?"

"B'Elanna, _I'm _going to replicate a pepperoni pizza and a few beers, and celebrate being human again."

"Oh."

"You can join me if you like."

"Don't you want to spend time with Sue?"

"She wouldn't understand. It's strictly a human-lizard-human thing. She can't celebrate if she hasn't been there, you know?"

"I guess we have been through a lot together."

"Yeah."

"After all, we have had babies together."

"..."

"..."

"B'Elanna?"

"Yeah?"

"That's still not funny."

"If you say so."

"..."

"Tom?"

"Yeah?"

"Is this going to be one of those things where as soon as we step out of Sickbay, we never talk about this again?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Okay. Well, I remember being a lizard."

"You do?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"I remember who initiated the mating thing."

"_Oh._"

B'Elanna stepped out of Sickbay, and Tom followed suit.

They looked at each other.

"So, we're never talking about this again?" Tom confirmed.

"Nope."

"Okay..."

"..."

"..."

"So...pepperoni pizza..."

"Pepperoni pizza sounds good," B'Elanna agreed.


End file.
